Campaign hopes to bring Shaq to UA

LessThanUThink, a student-based initiative of The Century Council, an anti binge-drinking campaign, has launched a movement to bring former NBA player Shaquille O’Neal to campus next weekend.

O’Neal attended Louisiana State University, the Crimson Tide’s football opponent Nov. 5. He recently partnered with The Century Council to fight binge drinking on college campuses.

“Binge drinking is a national problem that affects college students,” said Teri Henley, official advisor of LTUT. “Creating awareness about the issue and engaging students in discussion about it through a student-generated campaign like LessThanUThink has the potential to make a huge impact on their current success in college and their future as well.”

This week, as part of the group’s initiative to bring O’Neal to campus, they’ve launched a social media campaign.

Emily Diab, media coordinator for LTUT, said it was important for the student body to tweet O’Neal to help bring him to campus.

“We’ve seen social media reel in celebrities, namely Charlie Sheen, in the past,” she said. “This is such a strong campaign, and we’d love to see Shaq here.”

Diab said using the hashtag #GetShaq2UA, as well as tweeting @SHAQ and @LTUThink, will help bring O’Neal to campus.

Sarah Shea, an LTUT team member, said using social media to bring O’Neal to campus is a vital part of their campaign.

“We’ve seen that the student body can get behind social media campaigns and this will be especially crucial to ours,” she said. “It would be great if we could have all 30,000-plus of our student body tweet for Shaq to come.”

O’Neal, who was selected first overall in the 1992 NBA Draft by the Orlando Magic, also played with the Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat, Phoenix Suns, Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics during his 19-year career. He is a four-time NBA Champion and former NBA Most Valuable Player.

“We’re not just bringing in a random celebrity,” Diab said. “We’re partnering with The Century Council and Shaq, their new spokesman, for exactly what our campaign addresses; it makes sense. We have a history of success with this campaign and he is working towards a national campaign. It’s a great team.”